Digital Defence: Cybersecurity at Sea

In this time, where cyber threats are increasingly sophisticated, protecting naval vessels from digital attacks is crucial to ensure operational performance. Thales leverages its extensive experience in maritime solutions to enhance cybersecurity at sea, ensuring that naval operations remain resilient and effective in the face of evolving cyber threats. Discover how Thales' expertise is pioneering the way forward in naval cybersecurity.

Most of us recognize the importance of cybersecurity in our daily lives. If your personal device can be breached, so can the devices and systems that keep our societies safe and secure. This is why defence organizations across the world see ‘cyberspace’ is just as much of a military domain as land, air, sea, and space.

And yet, the cyber domain is fundamentally different because it is inherently connected to all other military domains. Systems must remain secure whether they operate in the air, on land, at sea, or in space. And whether it involves communication systems or weapon systems, they must withstand all kinds of digital threats. At Thales, we set a high bar for the cyber resilience of our products. 

At Thales, we are building upon a century of knowledge and experience when it comes to maritime solutions. Solutions that have continuously evolved to adapt to new challenges and threats, which include the emergence of cyber threats.

A digital attack on a naval vessel is an attractive option for malicious forces, as it is often a cheaper, safer, and more covert alternative to a physical attack. We leverage our knowledge of the systems, their context and cyber expertise to provide solutions to counter such digital threats. We do this through a broad naval cyber portfolio, following two specific aspects: our Anti Cyber Warfare capability and digital lifecycle management.

© Thales with GenAI

Identify, detect, and respond. These three crucial steps from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework form the foundation of our Anti Cyber Warfare strategy:

• Identifying threat scenarios: understanding the types of attacks you might face and their potential impact.
• Detecting problems as quickly as possible when they occur.
• Responding effectively mitigates impacts, ensuring that your mission remains unaffected or at least that disruptions are minimized.

Building on these principles, Thales cyber teams developed a capability that we can integrate into Naval Combat Management Systems, such as our own CMS, TACTICOS.

Through extensive research, we have developed specific detection methods tailored for naval vessels. These methods enable us to detect suspicious activities that might negatively impact the ship and its operational capabilities. Based on these detections, Anti Cyber Warfare provides real-time insights into the impact of the cyber incident, to be used as input for decisions in the CIC.

Unfortunately, on most missions, cyber specialists will not be available on board. Which is why Anti Cyber Warfare uses the Battle Damage Repair concept to provide advice on the response that is needed to mitigate the impact. This advice is designed to be executed by crew members without specific cybersecurity knowledge.

Instead of a full forensic analysis, it offers simple, actionable steps to mitigate threats, to complete the mission successfully and come home safely.

Frank van den Hurk, Naval Cyber Expert at Thales

Within the Cyber domain, threats develop every day. To keep the pace of these developments, regular updates are a must, as we all see on our phones and computers. However, frigates often have a significant longer lifecycle than typical devices. Whereas we use our phones for a couple of years, a frigate must be well equipped for decades. Further, updates for military products require extra attention as we meet the stringent requirements for safety, performance and accreditation. This makes updates far more complex and time-consuming.

Therefore, we don’t solely rely on providing updates. We understand that before an update has gone through the rigorous due diligence processes, ensuring these updates do not unintentionally impact system performance, a temporary mitigation must be in place. As part of our Vulnerability Management service, we don’t only identify, assess and triage vulnerabilities, but also provide mitigation advice to keep you safe, even when installing an update is not (yet) possible.

Thales: your partner for Cybersecurity at Sea

Thales combines expertise in the naval domain with expertise in cyber defence to deliver effective and cost-efficient solutions for onboard cybersecurity.

Our Lifecycle Assurance approach focuses on vulnerability management, forensics, and accreditation services tailored to the naval domain.

Frank van den Hurk, Naval Cyber Expert at Thales

Our Anti Cyber Warfare capability ensures security even during attempted breaches.

At Thales, we have led innovation for over a century, continuously adapting our solutions to meet evolving challenges.

Our cyber experts collaborate across various domains, ensuring our solutions remain applicable and effective. Together, we are building a digital future that inspires trust.